Sports Thrill Seekers Sign Here: According to USA Today, Air Force recruiters have taken their pitch to such venues as motocross races—with their young, thrill-seeking competitors—to seek out likely candidates for its battlefield airmen fields. The Air Force is short of pararescue jumpers, controllers who work with ground special forces, and other specialties that require exceptional physical prowess, not to mention nerve. Of course, as Today points out, the Air Force isn’t the only service with its eye on this type crowd. (Read about the training these airmen undergo in our April 2006 pictorial.)
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.